Rory Green: Developing an Ongoing Gratitude Practice

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Receiving a cancer diagnosis can make you feel like you’ve been plucked out of your familiar existence and dropped onto an unfamiliar planet. How does one cope with this altered life circumstance when faced with a terrain that is not only unfamiliar but also deeply frightening and threatening to one’s very existence?

In today’s episode of Real Cancer, I talk with Rory Green, psychotherapist and writing coach, who in 2015 was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. We explore Rory’s strategies for navigating feelings of fear and anxiety, her newfound appreciation for the mundane details of everyday life, and the gratitude practice she has maintained as a result of her diagnosis and treatment. We conclude with a discussion of the counsel that Rory has shared with others who are newly diagnosed with cancer or other life altering situations.

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Diane McDaniel: Cancer is a Reality Check

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A cancer diagnosis can be a terrifying experience, as it brings the person receiving the diagnosis, as well as his or her family and friends, face to face with the possibility of death. For many, a cancer diagnosis is the first close up experience in thinking seriously about the end of life.

While cancer treatment can extend life, it is often rigorous, painful, alienating, demoralizing, tedious, and frustrating. Enduring treatment can be an exercise in finding dark comedy. Even when treatment works, the experience can have lasting complicated effects. The phase after treatment can also be the beginning of unexpected and unwelcome periods of heightened vulnerability.

A cancer diagnosis and its treatment is often a transformative experience in the physical, emotional, social, and psychological aspects of the lives of everyone it touches.

In today’s episode, we turn the tables on interviewer and interviewee. Real Cancer host Diane McDaniel is interviewed by Rory Green, with whom she sat through weekly chemotherapy sessions, regarding her experience with ovarian cancer, its treatment, and the period of regular checkups after treatment concluded. We also talk about the impetus for the Real Cancer podcast and Diane’s hope that it will provide community and insight for people who are living with cancer, in one way or another.

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Liz Ganem: Support of Family and Friends

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Family and friends can be your most vital supporters when you’re diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment, but your relationships with loved ones can also be strained by this stressful experience. Just when you most need their unstinting support, your loved ones are also dealing with the extreme uncertainty created by a cancer diagnoses, and this may make it hard to provide the support that is needed. The fear experienced by everybody affected by a cancer diagnoses can strengthen some bonds and fray others.

What happens when treatment undertaken in an attempt to extend your life ends up making you feel alienated from your community? How do you deal with the loss of pleasure and connection to the feeling of well-being that makes life worth living?

In today’s episode, I talk with Liz Ganem, writer and middle school teacher. Liz was treated twice—in 2006, when she was pregnant with her son, and again in 2013—for two different for breast cancers. Together we explore our experiences with support from family and friends, as well as the challenges of being in social situations during this time. We conclude with a discussion of some of the strategies that helped us to navigate this tricky time.

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All About Hair

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When people hear the word “chemotherapy,” hair loss is one of the first concerns that comes to mind. For many, hair loss is an integral and dreaded component of the treatment to fight cancer.

The hair on our heads is important beyond its basic functions of protecting the scalp and regulating body temperature. Hair symbolizes physical strength, vitality, and virility. Physical attractiveness can be closely linked with hair. Hair that flows signifies health and freedom.

What happens when all of your hair falls out during cancer treatment? How do you deal with this loss, which is a sign to yourself and to the world that you are ill.

In today’s episode, I talk with Rory Green —writer, psychotherapist, workshop leader—who in 2015 was treated for breast cancer. Together we explore our experiences in dealing with hair loss and the changes in self-perception that accompany cancer treatment, as well as the period post treatment when your hair begins to grow back.

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